It be spacin g! ... and people wonder why I can't use linsux or OoO when working with large bodies of text.

This must have been fixed years ago. Either that or the font kerning data itself is not quite right. My Deja Vu fonts are kerned just right. I don't get that weird spacing issue and have never had the issue you describe with this font. Look at my earlier post where I link to a sample of my fonts on Linux.

That's ubuntu 9.04, with all the latest updates installed, showing that it still be spacin g - though I'm particularly fond of how it handles the 'ac' combination on FreeSans... and that 'ci' combination on Deja Vu Sans is cute too... and if it's screwing up Bitstream Vera Sans, then it's very likely the problem is likely NOT with the fonts, but with the renderer.